Question

• Shana, a first-semester nursing student, has demonstrated suitable academic skills that facilitated her acceptance into the nursing program. She has discovered that nursing studies are very different from general education studies, and she has found that she is not testing at the level she had been accustomed to and, in fact, has   found herself in danger of failing the program. She knows she needs to develop   new strategies to help her succeed in the program
• Identify potential solutions to the problem?
• Explore the advantages and disadvantages of each potential action?.

Answer 1

New learning strategies for nursing students

A plan of action intended to accomplish a specific goal is called a strategy. Learning strategies are the variety of methods that a student can apply in his/ her learning process to make it study more effective. There are number of learning strategies that a nursing student can apply to understand, learn and apply both the theory and practical knowledge .

Some of the strategies are:

1. Concept mapping

It is a very effective strategy for learning nursing and medical concepts, disease conditions , theories and procedures. It is a learning method, in which pictorial forms or graphic forms are used to describe a concept.

For example: Topic - Types of Immunity ( General Microbiology)

student can draw a pictorial form , in which the central concept is Immunity and its definition and the sides of the central concept should contain the different types under natural and artificial immunity with short description.

Advantages :

* help the students to see the content of the whole topic in a paper that contain a big picture .

* Students can visualize the relationships and can understand the concept easily, when she prepares it by herself.

* One paper can contain a large amount of information

* Helps the students to develop different cognitive skills

Disadvantages:

* It is time consuming for the teachers to evaluate it

* makes the student work more difficult

* some graduate students feel concept mapping as boring.

2. Simulation activities

Nursing Students can learn through simulation activities that enable them to practice more bedside procedures and hands-on activities .

Medical procedures like injection, IV , Cardio pulmonary resuccitation etc can practice in labs on dummies. Anatomy subject can learn easily with help of models and specimens

Advantages

* Simulation activities make the learner to get acquainted with the scenario

* Simulations are learner friendly

* can mimic the real world or situation.

* Make the learning interested

* Enable the student to acquire the basic skills in handling the instruments and apparatus.

Disadvantages

* Maintenance is costly

* Proper handling and training should be there for those who handle it.

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3. Role play

Roleplay is a learning strategy and teaching method , where a group or the individual acting out a given scenario or fantasy. Nursing Students can use roleplay as learning strategy so that it will arouse the interest in them to learn certain topics. Ms.Shana cn join with her friends and plan for a roleplay on certain topics after discussing with the teachers.

For example: Topic ' Ill effects of alcohol ' can act out in a group ( family and hospital scenario) after learning about it .

Advantages :

*Prepares for real life

* Make the study fun

* Make the topics interested

* Roleplay can influence audience also

Disadvantages

* Some students are not interested in acting out the scenario

* Students may not take it seriously

* errors may come in learning process

Ms. Shana can use the above said learning strrategies to make her studies more effective along with other strategies like unfolding case studies, reviewing previous question papers and comparing and contrasting the case scenarios .